Buttsweat Towel© season has begun

Calling off my run today, and probably tomorrow.  I think I did some additional damage to my knees yesterday (now they're both bad)!  So a recovery week this week, even if that means only running 2-3 times, then easier miles the next week when I start building again.  When I think about it, I had only been running 12-14 miles/week a couple months ago, now I'm trying to do 12 mile runs.  Gonna try that "listening to my body" thing and not force it so much.

No run again, knees are not doing good going up and down stairs.  Now the left knee is worse than the right.  Maybe an easy TM run tomorrow if it snows again as advertised.

We got another 4 inches of snow today/last night.  The fact that snow is almost normal now is scary.  Anyway, went with the treadmill since the knee could probably use the extra shock absorption.  Did 30 minutes at easy speeds with only minor discomfort that went away after a mile.  I think this scale-back week will be just what the doctor ordered.

Early morning run outside, 8:30 pace, 24 degrees F.  That was very cold for me, I think this is about my lower limit unless I get some good gloves and warmer underwear.  Boxers did not cut it today.  Anyway, this time the left knee did great and the right ached just a little more, probably because of running on the hard surfaces vs. the TM from yesterday.  Weird how it switches like that; at least it's even.  Still, they're feeling pretty good now.

Winds today were from the south at 26 mph gusting to 36.  And I thought I'd go ahead and run on my north-south highway...I may not do that again.

So the fist 3 miles (going north) I almost felt like I was walking, my effort was so low.  I could feel the wind picking me up and it felt like I was being carried down the road.  Averaged 8:22.

I knew it would be bad coming back, so I set 9:00/mile as a goal and managed to average 8:51 coming back.  Those were probably almost tempo pace effort, no kidding.  The gusts would actually knock me back on my heels a bit.  Judging by my breathing, I was definitly giving huge effort.  So much for taking it easy this week - I shoulda just kept the same effort and run 10-minute miles since my knee started complaining about the hard effort I gave coming home but I couldn't stand not meeting the arbitrary goal I set.  Anyway, the knees are doing ok now so no damage done I think.

6 early-morning miles (caffeine aided this time, so much more energy).  Averaged 8:09 with the last mile in 7:28.  Felt great, I think my knees have turned a corner and I'm on the downhill portion of recovery.

Tomorrow would be a beautiful day for a long run (perfect weather) but my wife is going to Fort Worth to run Cowtown so I'll be watching the kids.  Maybe I'll get in a short evening run to cap off my recovery week.

I wound up having time for 5 before dark so I decided to go at my half-marathon goal pace (8:00) to see how tough it would be.  Splits were 8:03, 7:57, 8:03, 7:50, 7:54 (7:57 avg).  I was definitely working harder than normal but I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't too bad at all.  I could have kept going a few more for sure, though I'm pretty sure I could not have done 8 more like that.

Weekly mileage - 25.4